It's been cold out. I made a "burnt onion" chicken soup and served it with hard, store bought Syrian sesame bread sticks.
We have a Turkish owned, Mediterranean grocery not far away. Any time I get near, I try to stop in and see what they have. Those hard sesame bread sticks are amazing!
They have imported foods from all over that region of the globe. I found fig syrup last time I went. I bought some!!
One thing I ALWAYS buy is fresh dates and dried ones ready for travel across the desert. Dried ones are basically raisins, but twenty times larger and more sweet.
I used to have three heavily producing date palms in my father's yard in south Texas and I miss them.
People who had lived there, admiring those trees their whole lives would ask me what do you do with those? There are millions of date palms in south Texas, not just mine.
That's just possum food, right? Yeah, once they rot and fall from the trees, that's about all you've got.
Well, you cut them from the trees in huge bunches when they ripen, pit them, like you would cherries and eat them or make pies out of them.
Mexican friends' grandmas taught me that pie thing!
Anyone ever had date pie? Magnificent!
A Mexican delicacy is to make a dough, much like what you need to make flour tortillas (masa harina), fold them over and seal them with date filling inside and fry them.
So good!
